After the Biden administration moved to forgive tens of billions of dollars worth of student debt through updates to the calculations associated with existing accounts and related to income-driven repayment plans, Republicans were publicly outraged.
The adjustments from the Department of Education included providing more credit to borrowers for certain periods of time that had already passed, with borrowers who were affected having been waiting until they hit 20 or 25 years worth of payments to access eventual relief. Thus, crediting these borrowers for more periods of time, including those in which they didn’t necessarily meet an individual month’s full payment obligations by deadline, lets them reach relief faster.
“Joe Biden is pushing back on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling by forgiving $39 billion of student loan debt,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) complained online. “This administration has no respect for our institutions.” She is referring to the court’s ruling against a wide-ranging plan from the president to provide student debt relief to Americans more broadly.
“16,970 of Senator Blackburn’s constituents are eligible for automatic loan relief under this Administration’s fixes to the Income-Driven Repayment plan,” the White House replied on Twitter. The same official account had shared a similar rebuttal to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who complained about the ostensible costs associated with the latest plans.
The Biden administration has already turned to other specialized avenues for debt forgiveness besides the mechanisms of income-driven repayment plans. The Department of Education has vastly expanded the implementation of debt forgiveness options for individuals working in public service fields such as teaching and law enforcement. Since fall 2021, the Biden administration has forgiven at least $42 billion worth of student debt for well over 600,000 borrowers under the terms of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. At the close of Trump’s time in office, only about 7,000 Americans with student debt had been approved for relief under that program.
16,970 of Senator Blackburn’s constituents are eligible for automatic loan relief under this Administration’s fixes to the Income-Driven Repayment plan.https://t.co/UGIzHQf2bS
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 21, 2023
